Tomlin contradicts himself

Tomlin can try to convince himself as much as he likes on this clock management skills, but he sure isn't going to change any of our minds.

In his press conference today, Tomlin was asked whether he disagreed w/Archer's decision to not bring the ball out on the last kickoff. His comment and I approximately quote him as saying - "Well I think I am okay with Dri not bringing out the ball because chances are he probably gets it to around the 20 yard line and we lose 6 seconds that could be used for another play."

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS!!!!!!!

First of all - that is a time when you need to be aggressive because maybe you do bust one. Starting at the 15 vs. 20 doesn't matter much there because you are going to at some point hit on a few plays that get some big chunks of yardage....i.e. the risk is I lose 6 seconds or so, maybe start at the 15 vs. 20, could be a fumble but that is unlikely - but the reward is the possibility of a big return which would be huge.

Second - and most important. If you throw out the benefit of saving 6 seconds then you admit that time for extra plays for your offense is important. If it is then WHY WOULDN'T YOU CALL TIMEOUT TO SAVE TIME PRIOR TO THE 2 MINUTE WARNING.

Complete utter BS.

 

The coach is finally warming up to what we all know: Dri Archer is a bust.

The whole time out thing I somewhat understand. Working the middle of the field was all the bungles were giving us so hence the saving of the timeouts. Maybe not the right thinking but that's what was explained.

On to the Raiders.

 

Sadly it's getting to that point. Lateral agility and vision are apparently not his strong suit.

 

Hell1 I'm talking straight line speed as well! If he grabs and takes off full bore, he should at least get to the 20 every time!

 

I am not a Dri Archer proponent, but SteelersDepot had a nice article about how bad the blocking was on kickoffs...implying Dri doesn't have much chance. I guess he actually has one of the better average yards per kickoff in the NFL as well.Still doesn't justify his drafting, but he actually has improved a bit from last year.

 

I'm gonna have to agree with the coach on this one. Dri Archer busting a big one isn't happening, especially against the Bengals ST's unit. They're solid on their tackling on kickoffs.

 

I read an article where basically Dri blamed his poor kick returns on his speed and everybody else's slowness. He was talking about how he's too quick and people can't set blocks up for him. It was almost like he threw his teammates under the bus and pretty much said "I can't help that I'm so awesome and everybody else is so average." That's the way it came off anyway. Danny Smith said that he told him his speed really doesn't matter if he doesn't know how to use it. He said there's tons of people out there that have Dri type speed but they're unemployed by the league because they don't know how to use it. Dri can join that unemployment line for all I care. I've seen enough. Let some other team see what they can do with him.

 

Theoretically, Dri should have taken it out, because a kick returner should get to at LEAST the 20 on that kick, and there's always a chance he gets to the 30, or 40, or 50...

...However, you always have to look at how things are going, not just theories. (Same reason you don't go for 2 when you don't need to and you have a backup QB who can't throw a pass, or your 3rd QB taking his 4th NFL snap, but I digress.) In that game Dri was struggling to get to the 15. There was always a guy in his face, and he can't break a tackle. The blocking was bad, and he wasn't making up for it. Dri did the smart thing by staying in. I thought it was smart and selfless. I even thought he might have been told to do that by a coach.

Not that Tomlin considers any of that. I question the man's level of basic football intelligence more and more every week.

 

6 seconds to the 20? That's crazy talk maybe the 40-50. Either way Dri isn't hacking it and the coach isn't doing his best either in some facets... On to the raiders. We haven't had much success against them and they're not a bad bunch this season. Hope we buck that trend now!

 

I'm surprised nobody made a thread about the Colts using their timeouts on the other side of the 2 last night. It was similar to the Steelers game like 2:30 left and I think the Panthers had to throw on 3rd to try to end it. But the Colts got the ball back with 2:02 so got to run a play and had the 2 min warning.

 

The thing I don't like about Dri is as soon as he gets close to being tackled he lays down. Every time.

 

I'm questioning the teams collective IQ as well. I just don't consider us smart.

 

Honestly, I don't understand why anyone brings the ball out of the end zone anymore. A good return now comes out to the 20 and you'd get it there anyway without a chance of injury or penalty. Dri Archer is certainly not going to get to the 20 with regularity.

 

I stumbled across a story yesterday on how Archer had become a 'decent kick returner' (link below), which made me take a look at the numbers. One of the things to consider when drawing conclusions about effectiveness here is sample size. Ameer Abdallah leads all returners with 19; then Patterson with the Vikes, at 15; Archer has 14. This is, imo, getting in the range where one can make some deductions. (Some are still in single digits, which is still a little early.)

The other metric to look at is the average deviation a returner has from their average. Having a good yards/return average is good, but a higher deviation as suggests they have broken some longer runs and aren't just running into the backs of their blockers. I didn't have the time to calculate this across the board in order to see how Archer stacked up so I cheated - I looked at the longest return and TD's and eyeballed.

Some of the leaders, with their average yds per ret/# of ret/long/#TD:

Harris (Giants): 34.1/11/100/1
Montgomery (GB): 31.1/7/46/0
Johnson (Cards): 30.1/13/108/1
Ross (Ravens): 29.3/7/41/0
Jones (Raiders): 28.2/9/32/0
Rainey (Bucs): 28.2/9/37/0
Abdullah (Lions): 28.2/19/48/0
Jones (Bengals): 27.6/7/49/0

Archer: 25.3/14/38/0

Archer's poor returns Sunday dropped him from fifth in the league to outside the top ten. I think the most damning stat against him is the 38 yard long return (last year, 23), as it suggests he lacks a dynamic element that will propel him past that first wave of wedge busters. Looking at the top eight above, two have broken off a TD and five have had at least one run of 45 yards or more. This would coincide with I've seen from him; he has yet to show a good mix of speed, vision, and elusiveness to be much above average. Hope he proves me wrong.

* Link: http://www.pennlive.com/steelers/index.ssf/2015/11/steelers_archer_kick_returns.html

 

Thanks for that, Thor. You're coming with some good stuff on this board and I'm glad you're here.

I think we let Archer play out his rookie contract because if he was in danger of being cut, I think we already would've done so. He's so fast that I think we'll be obliged to give him the final year (or is it two?) to see if he gets anything right. I'm pulling for him because you just don't see that kind of speed in the NFL every day, but to date, he hasn't shown much of anything other than a couple explosive plays in preseason and a TD called back last year in the playoffs.

I don't think he's too small; I just don't think he's that good of a football player (balance, agility, vision, etc).

 

I've said this before and I'll repeat it here, Dri has straight line speed (sub 4.3 even though it doesn't look like it) but just doesn't seem to have the kind of quick twitch, dime cutting ability that players like AB have. He struggles to make people miss and goes down easily on first contact. Chris Rainey was better.

 

maybe is better lay down than fumble

 

I read that article the other day and posted it in a different thread. That's the one where basically it says that he just doesn't have the patience to wait on his blockers. If he doesn't develop that he will run himself right out of the league ya know?

 

I've pretty much given up on Tomlin. He's dumb.

 

Neither is staying vertical after his first contact!

 

same here

 

Now I kind of wish that Bell had imitated #13 on that sideline play where he got mangled by Burfluck and just fallen horizontal. Could have saved the season. Anyone notice on that tackle that Burfluck was completely airborne. If made from the front wouldn't that be called spearing and a possible penalty? But from the back perfectly acceptable. Too many buts and ifs to consider at this stage.

 

The thing about Tomlin's decision-making strategy is his self-professed tendency to 'go with his gut.' I think all coaches do this to a point, weighing statistical probability vs. heat of the moment, with the good ones having the magic of knowing when to trust each. Announcing that you eschew numbers and play it from your gut more often opens the door to a lot of criticism unless your mojo is pretty darn good. Tomllin's, imo, isn't anything special.

 

what about the big buts. do you like them and are you truthful about them?